Japanese Construction Cos. Fined $55M

Law360 (November 10, 2006, 12:00 AM EST) -- A Tokyo court has come down hard against 23 Japanese construction companies for their alleged involvement in a widescale bid-rigging scheme, ordering them to shell out a whopping $55 million in fines.

The Tokyo High Court required the companies to pay the precedent-setting fines after they were found guilty of breaching the country's anti-monopoly law by rigging bids for public bridge construction contracts, according to a court official Friday.

The fines, which were the largest in cases dealing with anti-monopoly violations, exceeded the previous record of...